NFL draft expert Mel Kiper Jr. fielded an hour and a half worth of questions during an ESPN conference call Wednesday afternoon and included thoughts about some of the top draft prospects in the state of Florida.

As some of you know, Mel Kiper released his mock 2011 draft last week and just two athletes from Florida schools were projected to go in the first round, Guard/Center Mike Pouncey of Florida No. 19 to the New York Giants and CB Brandon Harris of the University of Miami No. 26 to the Baltimore Ravens.

Should Kiper’s projections bear true, this would mark a down year in talent after the 2010 NFL draft produced five of the top 32 picks, including Super Bowl bound center Maurkice Pouncey, matching the 2006 total which included Florida State’s Antonio Cromartie.

“There’s a lot of competition for players, everybody else delves into Florida too for players,” Kiper said. “It’s not automatic that just because you’re Florida, Florida State and Miami you’re going to snap your fingers and win. That’s just not the way it is in college football right now.”

On Florida safety Ahmad Black

Ahmad Black will still be a good third or fourth round pick for anybody. He had a very good year, a heck of a career, he’s instinctive, he’s always around the ball. I really like him, I have all year. I started moving him up in September and October and he’s been solidly in that top one, two, three safeties all along.

On UCF offensive tackle Jah Reid

“Jah Reid, right tackle, makes sense in the second or third round for the [Philadelphia] Eagles.”

On Florida State quarterback Christian Ponder

Christian Ponder, average arm, super smart, he was was the only player from an FBS school that already earned his MBA going into his senior year this past season. Accuracy is good. I thought he was somewhat of a poor man’s Chad Pennington going into the year. I think his stock has slipped a bit, you know he had the injury this year he had to try to work through. I thought he was maybe a second round pick early in the year if he would have had a real good season. I think third to fifth round for him.

On Mike Pouncey

I think Mike Pouncey deserves to be in the first round, some would disagree because they say well he’s going to be a guard, he’s not a center. I still think he has that duel versatility. I think teams in the first round like the Giants at 19 certainly could look at him. There are several others that could as well in the first round, but I would say that the ceiling would be 19 to the Giants.

On Mike Pouncey comparisons to his brother Maurkice

What people have to realize with the brothers is he’s not going to be the NFL player that his brother is. Maurkice had, I thought, as a rookie one of the top three rookies of the NFL this year. And when you look at Mike, Mike had those struggles in the shotgun snap. You would think that he could be more guard than a center, but the center is not out of the realm of possibility.